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Wednesday, 27 October 2004
ARMENIAN OPPOSITION COMMEMORATES PARLIAMENT SHOOTINGS
By empty (10/27/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The opposition Artarutiun bloc convened a meeting on 26 October outside the parliament building in Yerevan to mark the fifth anniversary of the massacre in which eight senior officials were gunned down, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. In a statement read out to the estimated several thousand participants, leaders of the parties aligned in Artarutiun alleged that President Robert Kocharian and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian \"are directly responsible not only for not preventing the 27 October crime but also for obstructing the search for its masterminds and covering up the crime.\" Kocharian, Sarkisian, and other senior officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the killings.
The opposition Artarutiun bloc convened a meeting on 26 October outside the parliament building in Yerevan to mark the fifth anniversary of the massacre in which eight senior officials were gunned down, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. In a statement read out to the estimated several thousand participants, leaders of the parties aligned in Artarutiun alleged that President Robert Kocharian and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian \"are directly responsible not only for not preventing the 27 October crime but also for obstructing the search for its masterminds and covering up the crime.\" Kocharian, Sarkisian, and other senior officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the killings. Five men were sentenced late last year to life imprisonment for the massacre. The eight men killed included then Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsian, whose brother Aram now heads the Hanrapetutiun party, and parliament speaker Karen Demirchian, the father of People\'s Party of Armenia Chairman Stepan Demirchian. (RFE/RL)